You are quite right in stating that on line or distributed learning is not about the technology. It never is. It is about what one does with the technology. I completed programme in using technology for distributed some 15 years ago and we experienced and learned many of the methods you speak of. The leader of that programme — (Tony Bates)- mantra was “design, design, design” and he and his team were devilishly clever in designing our online experiences.

Your achievement is all about getting some rational design into the technology so that real learning happens. The massive online courses, such as your illustration, suffer because they are just “old wine in new bottles” and illustrate that everything wrong with a lecture based system continues to be wrong. These courses, as you infer, vastly underuse and indeed, misuse technology.

Many institutions go wrong when they choose to go online because it will save money… That couldn’t be further from the truth and is not a valid reason. Just look at your student/coach ratio — is that efficient?

In any case, congratulations on the course design and execution. It is a rare example of how to do it!